[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 10 (Thursday, January 16, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S385-S425]

[...]

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I bring to the attention of my colleagues 
the front page of the Washington Post this morning: ``Hill balks at 
shifting CIA role in drone war.''

       Congress has moved to block President Obama's plan to shift 
     control of the U.S. drone campaign from the CIA to the 
     Defense Department, inserting a secret provision in the 
     massive government spending bill introduced this week that 
     would preserve the spy agency's role in lethal 
     counterterrorism operations, U.S. officials said.
       The measure, included in a classified annex to the $1.1 
     trillion federal budget plan, would restrict the use of any 
     funding to transfer unmanned aircraft or the authority to 
     carry out drone strikes from the CIA to the Pentagon. . . . 
     ''

  The Appropriations Committee is supposed to appropriate. The 
Appropriations Committee has no business making this decision. How many 
of my colleagues knew that this provision was in this mammoth 
appropriations bill? I bet a handful. The job of the Armed Services 
Committee and the job of the Intelligence Committee is to authorize 
these things. There was no hearing in the Armed Services Committee, 
there was no hearing in the Intelligence Committee on this issue. 
Instead, a major policy decision that has to do with the ability to 
defend this Nation against the forces of violent Islamic extremism is 
now being decided in a secret annex of a mammoth appropriations bill.
  It is not the first time I say that the appropriators have 
authorized. The appropriators have gotten into the business of the 
authorizing committees in a way that is a violation of every procedure 
and process this Senate is supposed to be pursuing.
  I believe Senator Levin, the chairman of the Armed Services 
Committee, will be as outraged as I am. I believe the chairperson of 
the Intelligence Committee will be as angry as I am. This is a 
fundamental function of government that has to do with national 
security and it is hidden in a provision, in a secret provision of the 
mammoth appropriations bill. I say to the distinguished chairperson and 
ranking member, that is not their business.

[...]

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, today I come to the floor to discuss the 
consolidated appropriations bill of 2014, upon which we will soon be 
voting. While I am pleased that this bill will prevent another 
government shutdown and hopefully signal to the American people that we 
can actually work together, I will not be voting for this bill due to 
serious concerns surrounding specific policy riders and spending 
provisions. I am also seriously concerned about the process whereby we 
are passing a 1,582 page, $1.012 trillion spending bill that we 
received at 8 p.m. Monday night--giving us very limited time to time to 
carefully review or debate and no ability to amend.
  Now, this is not a new occurrence in Congress. According to the 
Congressional Research Service, between 1977 and 2013, there were only 
4 years when all appropriations were enacted on time--fiscal year 1977, 
fiscal year 1989, fiscal year 1995, and fiscal year 1997: ``[O]ver half 
of the regular appropriations bills for a fiscal year were enacted on 
time in only one instance (1978). In all other fiscal years, fewer than 
six regular appropriations acts were enacted on or before October 1. In 
addition, in 12 out of the 37 years during this period, none of these 
regular appropriations bills were enacted prior to the start of the 
fiscal year.'' This is unacceptable and must change.
  With our country facing a rapidly growing $17.3 trillion debt, which 
amounts to more than $54,000 per citizen, it is time for Congress to go 
back to the ``regular order'' and consider each one of the 12 
individual appropriations bills in turn to fund the activities of our 
government before the end of the fiscal year, with ample time for 
debate and amendments, instead of ramming through a massive 1,582-page 
Omnibus appropriation bills like the one before us today. The American 
taxpayer expects more and deserves better than what we are giving them 
in this bill.
  The Omnibus includes appropriations policy riders and pork barrel 
projects that should raise red flags for all of my colleagues. For 
example, tucked away in the classified portion of this bill is a policy 
rider that has serious national security implications and is a prime 
example of the appropriators overstepping their bounds. This provision 
will halt the transfer of the U.S. drone counterterrorism operations 
from the CIA to the Department of Defense. In doing so, it summarily 
changes a very important policy that guides how we do certain 
counterterrorism operations abroad from a direction that the President 
has specifically prescribed. And how did most of us become aware of 
this major policy change? By reading this morning's Washington Post; 
that is how. This is outrageous, and it should not have happened. While 
there may be differing opinions on who should control drone 
counterterrorism operations, we should be able to debate these 
differences in the committees of jurisdiction and eventually on the 
Senate floor. The fact that a major national security policy decision 
is going to be authorized in this bill without debate or authorization 
is unacceptable and should not be the way we legislate on such 
important national security issues.

[...]